Hamilton hospitals shortchanged

According to a new study — Hamilton hospitals have been shorted tens of millions of dollars and more than 2 thousand staff, leaving patients with long waits to get in and under intense pressure to get out.

The report, Fewer Hands Less Hospital Care was prepared for the hospital union council.

It looked at the funding of Ontario’s acute-care hospitals compared to the average funding across Canada.

It found Ontario’s hospitals were underfunded $4.8 billion in comparison, leaving the system with 40 per cent fewer beds than in other provinces.

The report found that for Hamilton, Ontario’s level of funding results in 577 fewer nurses and more than 17 hundred fewer people providing care in the hospitals.